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2012 was a big year for cool Sydney restaurants – new places 4Fourteen and The Apollo - some very sad departures like Becasse but in all of that mix, we had some brilliant food. Tough choices but sydneycool presents its best 6 dishes from cool Sydney restaurants (and we just had to include this one from Bali – simple, fresh flavours and it was perfect).

First we would like to give a big thanks to all the brillant chefs whose cooking we have enjoyed in 2012, and looking forward to a lot more in 2013 also some great restaurants that we love and would like to be able to eat at more often. Time is often our enemy. Sometimes, we as the customer forget what hard and long hours they all work to bring us such pleasure. Thank you so much Christine Manfield – Universal, Peter Gilmore – Quay, Tetsuya Wakuda – Tetsuya’s Sydney, Colin Fassnidge – Four in Hand, David Chang – Momofuku Sydney, Jonathan Barthelmess – The Apollo, Mark Best – Marque and each and everyone in their teams.

From Quay Restaurant – sashimi of local lobster, bergamot, green almonds, pomelo, elderflower. The fresh clean taste of the sashimi lobster, pomelo with the gentle scent of bergamot - this was for us at Sydneycool our dish of 2012.

The best Malaysian food in Sydney at Mamak - we love the murtabak – classic Malaysian pancake filled with spicy meat, cabbage, eggs and onion – a meal on its own. This is the best Malaysian food when you’re not in KL.

At Momofuku, such visual beauty – ultra thin discs of radish, stacked high and delicate – so you might think it a beautiful flower, gently dusted with fermented black bean sitting on small cubes of wagyu beef.

Toko the spanner crab salad with wasabi – chunks of succluent white spanner crab in a salad served over ice – loved the contrast between the wasabi and fresh sweetness of the crab meat.

La Lucciola, Bali – there are times when a dish is put in front of you and everything from the smell, the look, your imagination and most important thing the taste – well this desert did it for us. We had to go back and have it a second time – fresh coconut tart, fresh mango and coconut semifreddo, biscotti.

And some special mentions – Marque Restaurant - tiger prawn smoked, avocado, buttermilk, hazelnut and cured egg yolk. The ultra smokiness with crunch of prawn, against the charred but soft avocado and smoothness of buttermilk, hazelnut was quite breathtaking. A brilliant dish!

Three Blue Ducks – the food here is brilliant any time of day – you have to try their degustation for dinner. It’s also the best breakfast place in Sydney. And to Miss Chu for the best Vietnamese street food in Sydney, Porteno Restaurant, Fu Manchu, Paddington Arms Restaurant, Bloodwood, Sixpenny and Oscillate Wildly – for all the wonderful meals.